LAST POT COLLECTIVE IN COUNTY CLOSES AFTER LONG BATTLE

The region’s only permitted medical marijuana collective has closed its doors amid a lengthy legal battle, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Mother Earth Healing Alternative Cooperative, nestled in an industrial building outside unincorporated El Cajon, was forced to shutter after its landlord received a letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office threatening fines and seizure of the property.

California voters approved marijuana for medical use 16 years ago, but the drug is illegal under federal law.

Dispensary operators filed for bankruptcy in part to stave off the closure, but a judge last month granted the landlord permission to move ahead with the eviction. On Tuesday, the collective promised to maintain the fight even as federal prosecutors move to close collectives across California.

“Mother Earth will continue to pursue any and all legal remedies to champion safe, legal access to medical cannabis for its patients,” said Lance Rogers, an attorney for the dispensary. “In the event they run out of legal remedies, they will continue to advocate for these causes on the federal level.”

San Diego two years ago became the 10th county in the state to regulate dispensaries. Officials said the rules essentially limited collectives to 16 sites.

However, just one co-op successfully navigated the new permitting process.

Mother Earth has been in the cross hairs of federal prosecutors and neighborhood activists since opening on July 4, 2011. Critics of storefront collectives applauded the development and said they would use it in campaigns against local ballot initiatives that aim to permit and tax dispensaries.

“This just shows how much work is involved in closing these places, and it really is a waste of our law enforcement resources,” said Scott Chipman, the chairman of San Diegans for Safe Neighborhoods. “Cities and counties should be doing everything they can to keep these places from opening.”

Fifteen employees are now out of work and more than 2,300 active patients will be forced to turn to unpermitted co-ops, delivery services, or the black market to get their doctor-recommended marijuana, said Bob Riedel, the spokesman and founder of Mother Earth.

Many of the patients are in treatment at reputable medical facilities and have lifetime recommendations for medical marijuana — a telltale sign that they don’t have much time left to live, said Riedel, who shuttered his old location in Fallbrook because it would not have qualified for a permit.

“We have been dealing with people crying every day because they don’t know where they are going to go to get safe medicine,” he said. “This has been just brutal, man.”

Mother Earth operated about 2,300 square feet of space in a 15,000-square-foot industrial building near Gillespie Field. Coe Riedel, Bob Riedel’s wife and a former U.S. Marine and Gulf War veteran, served as president of the three-member board of directors. Collective operators maintain they established and adhered to a set of rigorous standards.

Mother Earth and its investors, who spent more than $700,000 to get it up and running, believed the Obama administration would not interfere with medical marijuana collectives that complied with state and local laws, Riedel said.